1729-1799

Italian Physiologist

Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian physiologist who extensively studied animal biology and reproduction. He is probably most famous for his experiments that helped to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation, which helped to pave the way for future research by Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). Spallanzani was a creative and endlessly inquisitive researcher who studied subjects in biology as varied as sexual reproduction, blood pressure and echolocation in bats. He is also well known for his forays into other areas of the physical sciences. For instance, he studied lava flows inside an active volcano.

Spallanzani was born in 1729 in Scandiano. A son of a distinguished lawyer, Spallanzani was interested in science at an early age. He was given the nickname, "the astrologer" after he showed an early penchant for astronomy. At the age of fifteen, he attended a Jesuit seminary called Reggio Emilia. Spallanzani declined...